Wesley has been a compulsive reader since childhood, with a particular fascination for the unusual and the arcane. It's an addiction like any other - he craves books, loves them, can't live without them. So when a former colleague comes to town and invites him to a highly secret auction of rare occult texts, how could he resist?

Unknown to Wesley, his colleague has sworn to avenge his father's death - a death which has something to do with the theft of priceless books from the Watcher's Council. And Wesley himself has a stroke of luck; after which things take a sudden turn for the worse. He buys a box of old books which just happens to contain one of the most famous books of magick ever collected.

The Red Compendium is known for the way in which it completely absorbs all those who read it - and Wesley is no exception. Soon he finds he can no longer put it down...